Douglas Todd: When political apologies divide us

Prime Minister Stephen Harper apologized in 2006 for the head tax levied on Chinese immigrants arriving in Canada between 1885 and 1923. This is the immigration receipt of Wing Shu Hong, who paid a $500 head tax when he immigrated to Canada in 1918.

The B.C. Liberals’ leaked memo on how to court the ethnic vote points to some insidious aspects of political apologies.

Official apologies have in recent decades become de rigueur. They are especially big in Canada. However, governments in South Africa, Britain, Germany, Japan, Australia and elsewhere have also been apologizing for the actions of their predecessors.

Some ethicists maintain political apologies can be beneficial when they redress injustices, encourage reconciliation and welcome beleaguered minorities to take a larger role in the wider political community.

But can targeted apologies also be divisive?

Not many Canadians have explored the potentially dark sides of political apologies. Until now.

The hook has been provided by the revelation that Premier Christy Clark’s then-deputy chief of staff Kim Haakstad, who has since resigned, distributed by email a strategy cynically advising the party to apologize to ethnic Chinese or South Asian people as an election ploy – to get a “quick win.”

Most obviously, Chinese leaders, South Asians and others have been outraged that the strategy aimed to use taxpayer-funded resources to seduce ethnic voters.

But the leaked report also revealed how supposedly high-minded apologies for past wrongs can be insincere, trotted out solely to manipulate.

The memo revealed the game plan of party strategists who appeared to feel outmanoeuvred by other levels of government in winning the ethnic-apology electoral sweepstakes.

As a result, the B.C. Liberals have been ridiculed by Chinese people for failing to recognize the century-old head tax that had to be paid by Chinese immigrants was a federal issue, which the Conservatives had already apologized for in 2006.

The B.C. government has also been dumped on for trying to leverage the 1914 Komagata Maru incident, in which a boatload of would-be Indian immigrants in Vancouver harbour were sent back to their homeland. B.C. Liberals were bluntly reminded that Prime Minister Stephen Harper also apologized for that. In 2008.

What does this B.C. Liberal fiasco reveal about political apologies?

It suggests, at their worst, such apologies can be misused to pander to various electoral groups. And it suggests an unpleasant aspect to so-called “identity politics.”

Identity politics describes the process by which minorities — including ethnic groups, aboriginals, religious organizations and in some cases women and homosexuals — sometimes demand greater respect, recognition and aid from society.

When it comes to ethnic identity politics, it is especially tempting for Canadian politicians to find a winning strategy, since the country has one of the world’s highest proportion of immigrants.

Key ethnic group leaders, such as S.U.C.C.E.S.S. past president Tung Chan, are among those who continue to urge desperate politicians to do everything they can to win over such “communities of interest.”

It should perhaps come as no surprise that one key academic research paper on public apologies is titled Just Pretending.

The paper explores the hypocrisy inherent in governments apologizing to minority groups, especially aboriginals, without introducing the reforms that could actually bring them long-term justice.

Another important study of political apologies, led by Craig Blatz at the University of Waterloo, suggested yet more downsides to official displays of regret.

When the Waterloo psychology researchers first asked Canadians about the Chinese head tax that began in 1885, they found most ethnic Chinese people didn’t know there had been one. They weren’t upset.

So, when the Conservatives’ apology came, the study found most Chinese-Canadians were not impressed. Indeed, white Canadians were more pleased than anyone with the apology. Go figure.

But there was a more disturbing finding by the intrepid Waterloo team. They noted the Conservatives’ head-tax apology in 2006 “was not associated with an increase in Canadian identity” among ethnic Chinese residents.

In other words, the researchers found this political apology and others may not have even accomplished the stated goal — which is to encourage members of a supposedly aggrieved minority to feel a more integral part of the wider community.

Indeed, it’s possible that Canadian politicians’ rush to apologize for all matter of wrongs in the distant past could be making members of ethnic groups feel more isolated, more aggrieved, more self-focused and less committed to the national common good.

If the discovery of the B.C. Liberals’ ethnic-vote strategy accomplishes nothing else, it should at least serve as a caution to every Canadian politician against indulging minority voters by playing “quick-win” apology cards.

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Prime Minister Stephen Harper apologized in 2006 for the head tax levied on Chinese immigrants arriving in Canada between 1885 and 1923. This is the immigration receipt of Wing Shu Hong, who paid a $500 head tax when he immigrated to Canada in 1918.

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